Back

Our biggest curved sofa started on a living room floor, as leftover fabric

Our biggest curved sofa started on a living room floor, as leftover fabric

At 450 cm wide and about 200 cm deep, this island sofa is the largest curved piece we have ever made.

And before any material was ordered or built, this beast existed as a sheet of upholstery fabric, cut to 1:1 scale and laid out on the second floor of a landed house in Singapore so that the interior designer who commissioned the sofa, Notion of W, can have a feel of it.

A drawing isn't good enough

A detailed drawing tells our factory how much wood to cut, but it says little about how a curve will look and feel in an actual room. There's also a lot of subjectivity when it comes to a freeform curve. Case in point: In our first draft, our gentle curve was just not curved enough for Notion of W.

The first template didn't pass the mark


Scale is also hard to judge from paper as well.

On paper, everything can seem fine but in real life, sofas can seem too big/ too small. We are also mindful about getting things right from the get-go as a made-to-measure sofa is not returnable.

How the fabric template worked

We almost always cut our furniture templates from our excess upholstery fabric. Fabric is light, rolls up easily and lays flat on the floor. The fabric template also helps our upholsterer plan where each panel will be cut and where the seams will fall.

The process:

  1. We plan and cut a 1:1 scale template on leftover upholstery
  2. Lay it where the sofa will stand and review it on site with the interior designer.
  3. Mark the changes, recut and review again.
  4. Send the approved template to the factory, which builds the frame according to its outline.
  5. Use the same template to plan the cut on the client's chosen upholstery

While reviewing our first draft, the team at Notion of W asked for bigger, more obvious curves so the dip in the middle and the rounded ends would register from across the room.

Custom made as two frames, one slip cover

The sofa was originally discussed as a single 450cm wide frame and we brought up using a crane to get the sofa to our client's home on the second floor. But we decided to split the sofa into two frames instead and carry two elements by hand.

On site we flipped the sofa over, locked the frames together from underneath, turned it upright and fitted a single removable top cover across both. 

Movable backrests

With no wall behind it and a depth of about 200 cm, an island sofa gives someone sitting upright nothing to lean on. 

Our backrests to the rescue! We made them weighted and have anti-slip fabric sewn onto the base, so they stay put when someone leans back. These backrests can be lifted and moved to wherever our clients want to sit, with oversized back cushions at the front for comfort.

Upholstery and colour

The curved sofa's body is upholstered in aquaclean®, a Spanish high performance fabric. The client picked aquaclean®'s Venice, a mini bouclé performance fabric while the back cushions are in aquaclean® Duetto, a collection featuring larger bouclé nubs. 

We put the smaller loop where we expect more traffic on. A tight, short loop is less likely to catch on a watch strap or a handbag than a chunky one. The larger loop goes on the cushions for contrast, where its texture shows from across the room. 

Notion of W helped the client choose an olive green for the sofa to give the curves an edge in a large room. It also forgives stains better than cream/ white and still reads as a neutral, so it sits comfortably with whatever surrounds it.

FAQ

Should I buy an organic-shaped sofa off the shelf or have it custom made?

Off-the-shelf curved sofas come in fixed sizes and fixed curves and drawn for a showroom. Custom lets you set the width, depth and the shape of each curve to your layout. We also plan how your sofa will get delivered, such as splitting the frame for a staircase. 

How do I check if a large curved sofa suits my room before it's made?

Ask for a full-size template and lay the template on the floor where the sofa will stand. Tape on the floor works for regular sofas but not for big curved sofas.

Can a sofa this size go up the stairs without a crane?

Yes, if it is designed in sections and then joined in the room.

Is a backless island sofa comfortable?

It needs something to lean on. Our movable, weighted backrests let you add support where people sit.

Can the cover be cleaned?

Yes. The top cover is one removable piece; follow the care instructions for your chosen fabric.

If you're planning a custom sofa, especially a large or curved one, message us with your floor plan and a few photos of your space. Reference images will also be helpful. We'll tell you what size and shape will work, and whether a full-size template is worth doing before anything gets built. DM us at +65 8750 6522

See All Articles

  • A Furry White Bed Sounds Like Maintenance Troub...

    When we first saw Notion of W's render for our client's bedroom, we thought it was intriguing. But nothing beats seeing the space in real life. The designer covered one of the walls in plaster, hand-raked into diagonal ripples, running from floor to ceiling. He then layered the wall with another feature panel on the right in a gentle serpentine curve that would also house a light strip giving the room a gentle ambience in the evening.   With so much going on, the bed frame had to take a back seat. Why white, and why furry Notion of W wanted the bed to sit quietly against the cream plaster. A simple white, neutral fabric would have been the obvious choice. But he chose a heavy chenille with a deeply textured pile instead. The designer liked that the fabric's texture kind of repeats the wall's patterns, just at a much smaller scale. The client's question: how do you maintain it? The client didn't object but asked how anyone keeps a white, fuzzy bed clean in Singapore. It's a common worry: under a Singapore couple's Lemon8 post about their bouclé bed frame, one of the first comments asked whether the fabric was hard to clean. Dust and hair is easy, says the owners of upholstered headboards who vacuums regularly. Oil is harder. An Apartment Therapy reader found her partner's hair had stained their headboard to a point where it's past rescuing. Bearing this in mind, we suggested making the fabric removable for easier cleaning. The headboard: a removable cover with velcro The headboard hangs on a wall cleat and is built in two layers, 11 cm thick in total. The layer facing the front is padded, the back of this layer is covered in velcro receptive fabric that the velcro on the slip cover grips. The layer at the back is shorter, narrower where a wall cleat is attached to.  The bed base: a Cove with its own cover For the base, the client chose our Cove bed base: a solid kapur wood frame with a padded surround that holds the mattress and keeps the sheets tucked tidily inside a frame. Our client's king sized mattress sits on the Cove bed base which comes in two elements so that we can fit it into the client's lift. At site, we pull the bed base's slip cover over the two units. You don't have to remove the mattress to take out the slip cover. The spare set The client also ordered a second set of covers for the headboard and the base. One set stays on the bed while the other is in the wash and drying. Any stain accidents mean a cover swap rather than a panic. Living with a white fabric bed in Singapore Vacuum the headboard and bed base once a month with a soft brush. If your bed comes with a slip cover: Remove the covers gently so you don’t stretch or tear the fabric or zips. Machine wash cold, at 30°C or below Use a low spin setting Rack dry the covers on a sunny day Do not tumble dry. The heat can shrink the covers and they may no longer fit. Run a fan for part of the day to keep the room dry When it’s time to put the slip covers back on, it’s easier with two people, so you may want a family member to give you a hand. Faqs Is a fabric bed frame easy to maintain in Singapore? Yes, especially those designed with removable covers. Consider buying a second set of covers to keep your bed covered while the other is in the laundry.  What's the difference between chenille and bouclé? Bouclé is woven from looped yarn and has tight curls. Chenille has a soft, fuzzy pile with a slight sheen, and heavy versions like the one used in this project are often mistaken for bouclé. Can I get removable covers on a custom bed frame? Yes. Here, the headboard cover fastens with velcro and the Cove bed base has its own slip cover. Can you build a bed frame around a mattress I already own? Yes. We measure the mattress itself, since many come in slightly under their labelled size. What bed suits a heavily textured feature wall? A simple shape, in a fabric that echoes the wall's texture at a smaller scale.We have over 10,000 upholstery colours and textures to choose from for your custom bed project. If you have a specific requirement, DM us at +65 8750 6522

    Read More

    A Furry White Bed Sounds Like Maintenance Troub...

    When we first saw Notion of W's render for our client's bedroom, we thought it was intriguing. But nothing beats seeing the space in real life. The designer covered one of the walls in plaster, hand-raked into diagonal ripples, running from floor to ceiling. He then layered the wall with another feature panel on the right in a gentle serpentine curve that would also house a light strip giving the room a gentle ambience in the evening.   With so much going on, the bed frame had to take a back seat. Why white, and why furry Notion of W wanted the bed to sit quietly against the cream plaster. A simple white, neutral fabric would have been the obvious choice. But he chose a heavy chenille with a deeply textured pile instead. The designer liked that the fabric's texture kind of repeats the wall's patterns, just at a much smaller scale. The client's question: how do you maintain it? The client didn't object but asked how anyone keeps a white, fuzzy bed clean in Singapore. It's a common worry: under a Singapore couple's Lemon8 post about their bouclé bed frame, one of the first comments asked whether the fabric was hard to clean. Dust and hair is easy, says the owners of upholstered headboards who vacuums regularly. Oil is harder. An Apartment Therapy reader found her partner's hair had stained their headboard to a point where it's past rescuing. Bearing this in mind, we suggested making the fabric removable for easier cleaning. The headboard: a removable cover with velcro The headboard hangs on a wall cleat and is built in two layers, 11 cm thick in total. The layer facing the front is padded, the back of this layer is covered in velcro receptive fabric that the velcro on the slip cover grips. The layer at the back is shorter, narrower where a wall cleat is attached to.  The bed base: a Cove with its own cover For the base, the client chose our Cove bed base: a solid kapur wood frame with a padded surround that holds the mattress and keeps the sheets tucked tidily inside a frame. Our client's king sized mattress sits on the Cove bed base which comes in two elements so that we can fit it into the client's lift. At site, we pull the bed base's slip cover over the two units. You don't have to remove the mattress to take out the slip cover. The spare set The client also ordered a second set of covers for the headboard and the base. One set stays on the bed while the other is in the wash and drying. Any stain accidents mean a cover swap rather than a panic. Living with a white fabric bed in Singapore Vacuum the headboard and bed base once a month with a soft brush. If your bed comes with a slip cover: Remove the covers gently so you don’t stretch or tear the fabric or zips. Machine wash cold, at 30°C or below Use a low spin setting Rack dry the covers on a sunny day Do not tumble dry. The heat can shrink the covers and they may no longer fit. Run a fan for part of the day to keep the room dry When it’s time to put the slip covers back on, it’s easier with two people, so you may want a family member to give you a hand. Faqs Is a fabric bed frame easy to maintain in Singapore? Yes, especially those designed with removable covers. Consider buying a second set of covers to keep your bed covered while the other is in the laundry.  What's the difference between chenille and bouclé? Bouclé is woven from looped yarn and has tight curls. Chenille has a soft, fuzzy pile with a slight sheen, and heavy versions like the one used in this project are often mistaken for bouclé. Can I get removable covers on a custom bed frame? Yes. Here, the headboard cover fastens with velcro and the Cove bed base has its own slip cover. Can you build a bed frame around a mattress I already own? Yes. We measure the mattress itself, since many come in slightly under their labelled size. What bed suits a heavily textured feature wall? A simple shape, in a fabric that echoes the wall's texture at a smaller scale.We have over 10,000 upholstery colours and textures to choose from for your custom bed project. If you have a specific requirement, DM us at +65 8750 6522

    Read More

  • Our biggest curved sofa started on a living roo...

    At 450 cm wide and about 200 cm deep, this island sofa is the largest curved piece we have ever made. And before any material was ordered or built, this beast existed as a sheet of upholstery fabric, cut to 1:1 scale and laid out on the second floor of a landed house in Singapore so that the interior designer who commissioned the sofa, Notion of W, can have a feel of it. A drawing isn't good enough A detailed drawing tells our factory how much wood to cut, but it says little about how a curve will look and feel in an actual room. There's also a lot of subjectivity when it comes to a freeform curve. Case in point: In our first draft, our gentle curve was just not curved enough for Notion of W. The first template didn't pass the mark Scale is also hard to judge from paper as well. On paper, everything can seem fine but in real life, sofas can seem too big/ too small. We are also mindful about getting things right from the get-go as a made-to-measure sofa is not returnable. How the fabric template worked We almost always cut our furniture templates from our excess upholstery fabric. Fabric is light, rolls up easily and lays flat on the floor. The fabric template also helps our upholsterer plan where each panel will be cut and where the seams will fall. The process: We plan and cut a 1:1 scale template on leftover upholstery Lay it where the sofa will stand and review it on site with the interior designer. Mark the changes, recut and review again. Send the approved template to the factory, which builds the frame according to its outline. Use the same template to plan the cut on the client's chosen upholstery While reviewing our first draft, the team at Notion of W asked for bigger, more obvious curves so the dip in the middle and the rounded ends would register from across the room. Custom made as two frames, one slip cover The sofa was originally discussed as a single 450cm wide frame and we brought up using a crane to get the sofa to our client's home on the second floor. But we decided to split the sofa into two frames instead and carry two elements by hand. On site we flipped the sofa over, locked the frames together from underneath, turned it upright and fitted a single removable top cover across both.  Movable backrests With no wall behind it and a depth of about 200 cm, an island sofa gives someone sitting upright nothing to lean on.  Our backrests to the rescue! We made them weighted and have anti-slip fabric sewn onto the base, so they stay put when someone leans back. These backrests can be lifted and moved to wherever our clients want to sit, with oversized back cushions at the front for comfort. Upholstery and colour The curved sofa's body is upholstered in aquaclean®, a Spanish high performance fabric. The client picked aquaclean®'s Venice, a mini bouclé performance fabric while the back cushions are in aquaclean® Duetto, a collection featuring larger bouclé nubs. We put the smaller loop where we expect more traffic on. A tight, short loop is less likely to catch on a watch strap or a handbag than a chunky one. The larger loop goes on the cushions for contrast, where its texture shows from across the room.  Notion of W helped the client choose an olive green for the sofa to give the curves an edge in a large room. It also forgives stains better than cream/ white and still reads as a neutral, so it sits comfortably with whatever surrounds it. FAQ Should I buy an organic-shaped sofa off the shelf or have it custom made? Off-the-shelf curved sofas come in fixed sizes and fixed curves and drawn for a showroom. Custom lets you set the width, depth and the shape of each curve to your layout. We also plan how your sofa will get delivered, such as splitting the frame for a staircase.  How do I check if a large curved sofa suits my room before it's made? Ask for a full-size template and lay the template on the floor where the sofa will stand. Tape on the floor works for regular sofas but not for big curved sofas. Can a sofa this size go up the stairs without a crane? Yes, if it is designed in sections and then joined in the room. Is a backless island sofa comfortable? It needs something to lean on. Our movable, weighted backrests let you add support where people sit. Can the cover be cleaned? Yes. The top cover is one removable piece; follow the care instructions for your chosen fabric. If you're planning a custom sofa, especially a large or curved one, message us with your floor plan and a few photos of your space. Reference images will also be helpful. We'll tell you what size and shape will work, and whether a full-size template is worth doing before anything gets built. DM us at +65 8750 6522

    Read More

    Our biggest curved sofa started on a living roo...

    At 450 cm wide and about 200 cm deep, this island sofa is the largest curved piece we have ever made. And before any material was ordered or built, this beast existed as a sheet of upholstery fabric, cut to 1:1 scale and laid out on the second floor of a landed house in Singapore so that the interior designer who commissioned the sofa, Notion of W, can have a feel of it. A drawing isn't good enough A detailed drawing tells our factory how much wood to cut, but it says little about how a curve will look and feel in an actual room. There's also a lot of subjectivity when it comes to a freeform curve. Case in point: In our first draft, our gentle curve was just not curved enough for Notion of W. The first template didn't pass the mark Scale is also hard to judge from paper as well. On paper, everything can seem fine but in real life, sofas can seem too big/ too small. We are also mindful about getting things right from the get-go as a made-to-measure sofa is not returnable. How the fabric template worked We almost always cut our furniture templates from our excess upholstery fabric. Fabric is light, rolls up easily and lays flat on the floor. The fabric template also helps our upholsterer plan where each panel will be cut and where the seams will fall. The process: We plan and cut a 1:1 scale template on leftover upholstery Lay it where the sofa will stand and review it on site with the interior designer. Mark the changes, recut and review again. Send the approved template to the factory, which builds the frame according to its outline. Use the same template to plan the cut on the client's chosen upholstery While reviewing our first draft, the team at Notion of W asked for bigger, more obvious curves so the dip in the middle and the rounded ends would register from across the room. Custom made as two frames, one slip cover The sofa was originally discussed as a single 450cm wide frame and we brought up using a crane to get the sofa to our client's home on the second floor. But we decided to split the sofa into two frames instead and carry two elements by hand. On site we flipped the sofa over, locked the frames together from underneath, turned it upright and fitted a single removable top cover across both.  Movable backrests With no wall behind it and a depth of about 200 cm, an island sofa gives someone sitting upright nothing to lean on.  Our backrests to the rescue! We made them weighted and have anti-slip fabric sewn onto the base, so they stay put when someone leans back. These backrests can be lifted and moved to wherever our clients want to sit, with oversized back cushions at the front for comfort. Upholstery and colour The curved sofa's body is upholstered in aquaclean®, a Spanish high performance fabric. The client picked aquaclean®'s Venice, a mini bouclé performance fabric while the back cushions are in aquaclean® Duetto, a collection featuring larger bouclé nubs. We put the smaller loop where we expect more traffic on. A tight, short loop is less likely to catch on a watch strap or a handbag than a chunky one. The larger loop goes on the cushions for contrast, where its texture shows from across the room.  Notion of W helped the client choose an olive green for the sofa to give the curves an edge in a large room. It also forgives stains better than cream/ white and still reads as a neutral, so it sits comfortably with whatever surrounds it. FAQ Should I buy an organic-shaped sofa off the shelf or have it custom made? Off-the-shelf curved sofas come in fixed sizes and fixed curves and drawn for a showroom. Custom lets you set the width, depth and the shape of each curve to your layout. We also plan how your sofa will get delivered, such as splitting the frame for a staircase.  How do I check if a large curved sofa suits my room before it's made? Ask for a full-size template and lay the template on the floor where the sofa will stand. Tape on the floor works for regular sofas but not for big curved sofas. Can a sofa this size go up the stairs without a crane? Yes, if it is designed in sections and then joined in the room. Is a backless island sofa comfortable? It needs something to lean on. Our movable, weighted backrests let you add support where people sit. Can the cover be cleaned? Yes. The top cover is one removable piece; follow the care instructions for your chosen fabric. If you're planning a custom sofa, especially a large or curved one, message us with your floor plan and a few photos of your space. Reference images will also be helpful. We'll tell you what size and shape will work, and whether a full-size template is worth doing before anything gets built. DM us at +65 8750 6522

    Read More

  • How to Pick Dining Chairs for a Live Edge Table

    A suar wood live edge table in a Singapore home, ten upholstered dining chairs and a teal botanical fabric with a hidden civet cat. Why mixing beats matching.

    Read More

    How to Pick Dining Chairs for a Live Edge Table

    A suar wood live edge table in a Singapore home, ten upholstered dining chairs and a teal botanical fabric with a hidden civet cat. Why mixing beats matching.

    Read More
1 3